Sea urchins in Israel’s Gulf of Eilat have been dying off at an alarming rate, researchers announced Wednesday — a development that threatens the Red Sea’s prized coral reef ecosystems.
They are brightly coloured, beautiful and hungry — tropical fish and sea urchins are thriving in southern waters warmed by climate change. But now they are devastating kelp forests already knocked around by marine heatwaves.
In some places surrounding the central and western Aleutian Islands, reefs are crumbling from urchins burrowing through the weakened calcium carbonate structures.
